National Geographic Society

Congratulations to All Roads Seed Grant recipient Aleksei Vakhrushev and his film entitled, The Tundra Book. It recently won the highest of film awards in Russia, The NIKA Award by the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia for the 2011 BEST DOCUMENTARY. The Tundra Book is the first film made by an indigenous filmmaker to receive such an award in Russia. All Roads recently screened the film as the U.S. Premiere in the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital this past March.

Check out the director's thank you speech and clip of the film.

The All Roads Film Project hosts the DC premiere of THE TUNDRA BOOK this Friday, March 16, 7:30 pm at the Grosvenor Auditorium. Filmmaker Aleksei Vakhrushev, a recipient of a National Geographic All Roads Seed Grant for the creation of this award-winning film, will be present for a discussion following the premiere.

Aleksei Vakhrushev was born in Anadyr, the capital of the Chukchi autonomous region (Russia), in 1969. He received his degree in actors' art at the Theatre Institute of Vladivostok and started his filmmaking study at the All Russian State Cinematography Institute (VGIK) in Moscow in 1991. He began his film career with the documentary Time When Dreams Melt, (1993-1996), the real story of his people--Eskimos of the Yupik group of Northeastern Asia. His view from the inside provided a completely new perspective on the life, problems, and hopes of the indigenous people of Chukotka for the first time. His 1996 film, Birds of Naukan, was also dedicated to the fate of Asian Eskimos. The film was awarded the Festival Directors Prize at the Munich International Festival of Film Schools and the Silver Plaque Award in Documentary History/Biography category at the Chicago International Film Festival, 1997.

Film synopsis
(Russia 2011 -- 105 minutes -- Russian and Chukchi with English subtitles)

Vukvukai, the Little Rock, is Chukchi from eastern Russia and lives along the Bering Sea region. He has lived his lifetime as a reindeer herder and thus is known in his community as a true man of the tundra whose life is inseparable from the reindeer. Vukvukai lives in one of the harshest climate zones in the world, the Arctic Circle. His story and that of the Chukchi is one of a nonstop struggle for survival, but the people believe that following the practices of their ancient, nomadic, cultural traditions contributes to the perseverance of their survival in the unyielding, frozen tundra. The film presents a glimpse into a land, culture, and people that few have ever dared to capture in its remoteness and desolation. For now, the nomadic Chukchi culture remains virtually intact away from the influx of modernity.

The film screens one night only: March 16 at 7:30pm at the National Geographic Grosvenor Auditorium, 1600 M Street, NW. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/films/2012/03/16/tundra-book/
or by calling 202-857-7700.

This weekend's All Roads series created for National Women's History month includes the DC premiere of the film MY WEDDING AND OTHER SECRETS by filmmaker Roseanne Liang. There will be a Q&A with Ms. Liang following the screening, which takes place at the Grosvenor Auditorium on Saturday, March 3 @ 7:30 p.m.

MY WEDDING AND OTHER SECRETS -- Synopsis
(New Zealand, 2010, 88 min, English and Mandarin with English subtitles)

This romantic comedy is about a zany daughter of traditional Chinese parents, who leave their homeland to raise their children with new opportunities in New Zealand. They do not foresee, however, what raising children with a "can do" attitude may bring. Emily is that can-do child -- ready to discover herself and live outside the norm, until she realizes that trying to make everyone happy eventually fades to facing reality and living by your choices.

Emily never dreams of marrying outside her parent's approval - to them her future husband should be Chinese -- until she falls head-over-heels in love with a local kindred spirit. Being in a cross-cultural relationship is not a frivolous matter for Emily. She is resolved to make a happy situation for everyone by creating a secret life with a secret husband that eventually becomes not so secret. In the end, Emily must learn how to become her own person - even at the risk of losing her family.

Filmmaker ROSEANNE LIANG - Bio

Roseanne Liang is a New Zealand Chinese writer and director. In 2005, she made BANANA IN A NUTSHELL, a documentary feature film which was based on her own real-life cross-cultural romance with her European New Zealand boyfriend, Stephen. The documentary premiered to huge acclaim at the 2005 New Zealand International Film Festival. In the same year, off the back of the success of BANANA IN A NUTSHELL, Roseanne was named Best Director Award at the Asia NZ Film Festival and SPADA New Filmmaker of the Year Award. Subsequently she also won the Best Director of Documentary Award at the 2006 Asian Festival of 1st Films and the 2007 New Zealand Chinese Association Significant Achievement Award.

Since the documentary was released, Roseanne has also worked as a writer and director on the TV3 sketch comedy series A THOUSAND APOLOGIES and her 2008 short film TAKE 3 won awards at the Berlin and Valladolid Film Festivals. In 2008, she was also named the Film and Television 'Woman to Watch' at the New Zealand Women in Film and Television Awards.

Roseanne's other short films include REST STOP (2004), HENCHMEN (2003) and FILMWORTHY (2001). She graduated from the University of Auckland with a Masters in Creative and Performing Arts. She now lives in Auckland, New Zealand and is married to Stephen. They have one son - Scout.